Emcee was Robert Doyle, general manager of the East Bay Regional Park District, which manages the park on behalf of the state. About 100 people attended, including many other citizens whose work made preservation of the shoreline park a possibility.

Sylvia McLaughlin co-founded Save the San Francisco Bay Association in 1961 after she and other community activists became alarmed by indiscriminate filling of the bay, destroying wildlife habitat and eliminating public access.

Subsequently she co-founded Citizens for Eastshore State Park along with Dwight Steele and other community volunteers. During the past forty years, she has been active in many other grassroots efforts to preserve and protect the bay shoreline.